Who Can Apply

What's required for eligibility

To be eligible to apply for the Standing Offer Program, the developer and the project must meet a number of requirements. Detailed eligibility requirements can be found in Section 2 of the Program Rules.

Key requirements include:

Clean or renewable: the energy must be clean or renewable as defined in the Clean Energy Act.

Located in B.C.: projects must be located in British Columbia, which includes Canadian and B.C. territorial waters. Projects must not be located in a Protected Area as defined in the Clean Energy Act.

Size: the project must be greater than 0.1 megawatts and no greater than 15 megawatts.

New generators: new generators are eligible to participate. Generation technology must meet the requirements to be considered either Commercial Operation Generation Technology or Completed Prototype Generation Technology.

Projects with BC Hydro customer involvement: Projects located behind a BC Hydro customer load and projects with BC Hydro customer involvement that are not located behind a customer load must first proceed through the Integrated Customer Solutionsprocess before a review of an application to the SOP is conducted for that project.

BC Hydro incentives and other Electricity Purchase Agreements: conditions and restrictions apply to energy from projects that have previous, current or future Electricity Purchase Agreements ("EPAs") with BC Hydro, and developers receiving BC Hydro incentives.

Target Commercial Operation Date: the project's target commercial operation date must be within three years of signing the Project EPA.

Permits: the developer must have obtained all material permits required for the project, demonstrate site control, and the site must be zoned appropriately if local government land-use requirements apply.

First Nations consultation: BC Hydro will be assessing the adequacy of First Nations consultation for a project submitted for consideration into the Standing Offer Program prior to offering an EPA.